As a former head of three federal agencies and a public trustee of Social Security and Medicare, I have learned that the process that one employs is critically important when transformational changes are needed. It has also led me to the conclusion that the “regular order” in Congress is broken and that achieving progress on multiple fronts within a relatively short time frame is not possible on a piecemeal basis.<\/p>\n
What does this mean? The president and the Congress need to work together to establish a “Fiscal Future Commission” (or Task Force) that, unlike most Washington commissions, would be designed to accelerate action and get the ball across the goal line rather than punt it down the field. Ideally, this commission would be created by statute to ensure buy-in from both the Congress and the president. It should include selected congressional members and administration and non-governmental officials. It should engage the American people outside Washington’s Beltway while also leveraging digital technology and the Web. After engaging the public and key stakeholders, it would make a range of budget control, entitlement, other spending and tax reform recommendations that would be subject to an “up or down” vote in Congress, with limitations on amendments so they would not undercut the fiscal “bottom line” of the commission’s recommendations.<\/p>\n